Sabotage
by Vick Vaporub
Summary: Jump City was - once again - victim of a crime that could not be confronted without the assistance of the world's most famous detective. The second time of his visit, though, had little to do with the arising threat of a new Kira, and more with paying a favor to a goth friend.


**Sabotage**

* * *

They sat together, silence comforting their sweated skin, ears covered by charcoal hair. But that did not prevent him from listening – the sound of a heartbeat.

The room colored with plain blank walls was as empty as the emptath's mind; she ought to meditate in order to keep her sanity, that being the thought of one of her emotions, the yellow cloaked one (Wisdom, right?). It had been so long ago; it felt like ages, but truly only two years had passed since… That event.  
Dark orbs matching the hair color of the young man – wearing a white shirt that made him almost disappear in the room – watched Raven's chest rise with several intakes of breath. Anyone who might be outside of this scene would think he looked at her with bored-wicked-obsessive eyes (maybe, she thought, it is what's happening. Maybe he is just another twisted pervert. Yes, it's perfect. Then I'd have an excuse to…)

"Triturate me and send me to jail" he finished quietly for her. "Lovely" he smiled. The act didn't fit him at all. Such a predatory smile.

L.

L for Logan (Garfield Logan), God she had forgotten how his name could taste delicious under her tongue. But that was Raven being emotional. She cracked an eye open to see if she hadn't blast anything around the room, but there was nothing to be blasted. They were in a room (in an empty building) with no windows, no furniture, pale walls and an incandescent light bulb. The only blast able object was–

L. How come an avulse capital letter could mean so much and be part of two names of two people she knew? Garfield Logan (not only her Beast Boy, but also Cyborg's, Starfire's and Robin's), and Detective L. She did not know his proper name and she didn't care; the situation was already bad on its own accord. But, she considered the possibility of the detective being a blast able object; the thought crossed her mind when he moved his legs to come closer to Raven. Five seconds ago.  
He was inches from her face now, his curled posture obscenely observing every motion of the empath, his tortured thumbnail suffering under the small bites of his pale lips who shared the ghost of the previous unfriendly smile. What did he want with Raven, anyway? They were dead, both Kira – who came out to be Yagami Raito – and Beast Boy, were dead. There was no reason for this "detective" to come after the Titans anymore. There was no reason for him to come after Raven.

If she were a normal girl, she would've allowed herself a small sob; nevertheless, being in his presence, the (any, actually) normal twenty-one-year-old woman would cry. But – fortunately or not – Raven was no regular woman. She knew it and L knew it as well; the detective's presence was overwhelming in a sense, it was neither comfortable nor primal (as Beast Boy's had once been). Plainly human - that's what it was. A mortal, but with sharpened perception and weird posture, pandemonium of a hair and black hole eyes, simple white clothes demonically contrasting with the aforementioned orbs. Whoever this person was, it shouldn't scare Raven; she'd seen worse criminals, paedophiles, serial killers, Slade, Plasmus, and her father – the end of all things mortal.  
She fought back a violent shudder. Raven had already got over the fright of being the portal. She'd defeated her own heritage, managed to fulfill her Prophecy without killing her friends. But the experience still gave her nightmares. Horrendous nightmares.

"Drifting away, aren't we?" A quiet voice hummed behind her left ear, noticing her thoughts were elsewhere. The empath stiffened visibly, and when his long thin fingers touched her bare shoulder she jerked away from him. A mixture of hatred, cold hands, sweat skin, and a hectic feeling she could not put a name to made a mess on her stomach, and suddenly she felt the taste of everything she had ate for lunch.

"Don't touch me," she warned, almost growling. Her first spoken words since she was brought to that room. Her first spoken words in three days.  
And then, without a warning, the door – so white it was barely visible – moaned itself open, letting pass a man in his mid thirties with two plates of food and a jar of water, his footsteps echoing around the naked room. The prints of his steps,  
the dammed white plate was placed in front of Raven, the other one (filled with candy) stood in front of her, waiting for the room's other occupant.  
L got up to his feet, the first time the empath saw him at his full height, his posture still curved. He walked to the man and took the water off his hands, placing it carefully between the girl and himself.

"Turn on the air," he quietly pointed to the air cooler. The thirty-year-old man left the room without further words.

Raven sighed, bored. The routine would start again. Since she'd been brought to that place, L would make most of the conversation talking two or three phrases in the morning that were never answered, then (by noon) the same man would bring the same food – every assortment of sweets for him and four slices of pizza (the favorites of Garfield) for her – and the detective would only eat when she touched her own plate. Then (three o'clock, not even a second late), L would leave the room to prepare herbal tea for her. She never drank it.

Night came with a few awkward moments, but Raven never voiced them nor demonstrated she was embarrassed. Aware of this fact or not, the black-haired man talked in his sleep; most of it was incoherent thoughts but some words slipped from his lips and slapped the empath across the face, forcing her to hide her features inside her hood in case L might be pretending to be asleep. Of all corporal reactions she hated, the winner was a blush. It was the most visible one her pale grey skin would give away, every time her cheeks turned pink – another color she hated. Besides, the amount of times Cyborg and Beast Boy teased her for blushing… She preferred rather not pass through that again, but she didn't think the detective would tease her. It was more a question of keeping her pride undamaged.

When she finally took a bite out of one of the pizza slices, L was back with two mugs of tea – chamomile. She frowned but did not accept the herbal tea. He sipped a bit of his own, knelt, posture entirely turned to her, his fingers choosing a weird way to hold the mug. Black eyes never leaving her face.

"What brings you here?" L asked. Raven could not tell if he was joking or not.

She snorted.

"Is this your idea of a date?" She answered acidly.

His white – Why on Azarath was this particular color chasing her? – teeth showed up in an amused smile. He took a bite of a random sweet Raven recognized as jelly beans. She waited for him to say something, anything, but it was his eyes that told her what she was curious to know.  
There's another one, she repeated with grief, but how?

"Shinigami's are hard to predict," he began slowly, his words seemed a burden and for the slightest of seconds, Raven swore she saw a hint of despair tint the outline intruded green on his orbs, but they vanished and turned hard as he continued. "Therefore no human psychology will ever work with them, not even if they spent a lifetime among us." When words got too heavy for him to carry, L was forced to take a breath. "It might be the same one that gave the notebook to Raito."

"You mean–" She stopped mid sentence, not sure if she wanted a confirmation. The half-demon absently toyed with rim of her hood, measuring consequences. If all of this was happening, why hadn't he asked for help sooner? The Titans would have…

"You don't know who the new Kira is, do you?" Despite her diabolical features given by birth, Raven's voice softened, the small whisper caressing L's face as he moved a little closer to listen to her words.  
Then he moved back to his spot, clearly offended, sly fingers in his pockets and new hardened eyes stabbing the empath. But both knew she was right; the detective was far too restless. He had kept her captive for three days now without a single good reason (or a reason at all) and when it became visible to Raven he was surrounding her – waiting for answers she did have but would not willingly give – she simply shut her mouth, becoming quieter than usual.

"How much more childish you can get?" she spat viciously, tired of his game. "You want answers then ask questions. Don't you see I'm in need of a bath?"

She had mentioned it with sarcasm, a sentence dripping, soaking wet with cynicism, but it was true; Raven was in need of a bath. Desperately.  
She wasn't expecting him to laugh, though. Scratch that, she was not expecting L to react in any sort of way, much less snickering.  
He was on the floor by now, chest roaring with his doubtfully human laugh, hands pressed against the cold cement of the floor and hair – if possible – getting messier as he fought to breathe.

The half-demon was taken aback, slightly amused by the fact anything she said could be considered funny, but when an enraged (blame Rage for that) thought crossed her mind, that maybe he was laughing because of her, Raven felt like exploding his face. But still–  
Joy was emanating from him in waves and this was a particularly pure emotion, it cannot be originated from mockery. The empath's head tilted left. Affected by his emotions now, Rage was nothing more than a cute content puppy. She was fighting a giggle herself ("Affection" she warned. "Got it!"). With one of her emotions put aside, she decided to ask.

"What in the world?" Raven's voice cracked with a smile, she couldn't completely restrain herself.

"Sorry." The detective got himself off the floor "Where are my manners?" He reached his hand out for her "Please, follow me". L's face was serious, but he never managed to suppress his smiling eyes; the quiet Titan accepted his hand and he lifted her up.  
She followed him through the door, guards already surrounding them, but the black-eyed man dismissed the escort with a flicker of his fingers and trailed his path down the gray corridor, a confused Raven not much far behind. She saw a few doors and an elevator, but they walked right past them to a lonely chestnut door with bruises caused by termites at the end of the hallway. L sidestepped to let the half-demon pass; she grabbed the doorknob uncertainly, but opened it anyway.

"A bathroom?" He shrugged and left, his words falling behind his shoulder as he spoke.

"I'll bring something for you to change into" Then, he left, his unusual figure becoming smaller until he disappeared from her vision.  
Raven entered the small room. Remembering to lock the door behind her, she turned around to find that the locker was broken. Great, she thought, rolling her eyes in disapproval. Simply amazing! She spotted a chair, and in no time, it was ducked under the doorknob, preventing any "detective" to accidentally open the door and find her naked. Nodding to herself, she shoved aside the dusted plastic curtain and began inspecting the insides of the shower, somewhat expecting to find a waterproof camera of some sort. As paranoid as she could've been acting, the empath understood that L did not trust her at all; it was a prevention if she tried to escape – but instead, Raven discovered magical markings above her head, behind the small portable mirror hanged with a nail, on the floor even behind the sink. Suspiciously the half-demon tried to cast a simple summoning spell, but the black energy dissipated at the second she started concentrating on it.

She frowned. What a sly dog!

* * *

She must have figured out by now, the detective thought, unlocking one of the doors they'd previously passed by. I wonder if she'll try to beat me… His steps were reverberating through the room, tired feet closing the distance between himself and the computer. Maybe they have already tried to contact her…? He logged on and started a connection with the Titan Tower, an impassive and restless Robin picked up the call.

"How is she?" His concern infected the leader's voice.

"Raven is most fine. We have agreed in certain… topics – yes, I suppose I can say that – and she now understands my situation." He replied, eyes narrowing a little from his own choice of words.

"In other words, you yet have to find out who–"

"Although she did not give me a list of the most hazardous enemies of the Titans' past, I am certain that as soon as she gives me the names, I will find out who this new Kira is." L's voice rose for a second, enraged for the Boy Wonder's petulance. "The Shinigami whom the killer acquired the notebook with is unimportant, this shou–"

"Unimportant?!" The young man punched the table "It's our job to arrest them and you consider an accomplice of such horrendous crimes unimportant?!"

"Why, I thought you were aware," the detective said casually. "Shinigamis are considered to be – in Japanese mythology – God's of Death. How do you expect to punish those immortal creatures by any law if it cannot be applied to them?"

At this, Robin was taken aback. "I–"

"Our laws were made to be applied to punish humans and humans alone. Never minding if they have any sort of transmutation in their blood, they still are humans and the most valuable characteristic that makes us humans is our mortality." Black bangs were shoved aside from L's view by his hand. "I am sorry to take such harsh measures." He didn't sound guilty at all. "But they are necessary. No one can ever know I am close to finding an answer to this case; not even your FBI. They make an enormous ruckus about any clues they find; they might blow up my cover and put everything to loss."

Robin was quiet for a while. Starfire stood quiet in the corner of the common room, silently waiting for more news of her friend. Cyborg never watched the conference; he was certain that he would get angry and spat at the "detective", he even might try to rescue his little sister and he did not want to ruin the chance of getting the killer, so he kept his mind occupied with the T-Car.  
He never had been the same since Beast Boy was killed.

"Did you erase all the data?" Pale lips moved in front of the camera, which captured all of his face, even the smallest wrinkle and dark circles under his eyes "We can't slip on the same mistake again."

"Yes, we have." He nodded sombrely. "Our names won't be traced by anyone, not even CIA or FBI has our identities any more.

"Anyone else who knows your names?"

Robin shook his head.

"Only us, there is no chance anybody on the Justice League could be the Kira. It's like saying the sky is green."

"For a blind, it may be," the detective warned. "Take care." He was about to turn off the camera when the Tamaranean stepped into the camera's view.

"Is… is friend Raven all right?" She almost allowed herself a sob. Almost. "She is safe, isn't she?"

"Please do not concern yourself. She is in her full cynical humorous state. I believe this is a confirmation for your answer."

Robin took Starfire's hand in his own, giving it a gentle squeeze before turning once more to L.

"What do we tell the press? They want to know why Raven isn't fighting crime with us."

"Trigon distress happened two months ago, am I right?" Both alien and Boy Wonder nodded. "Tell them she had a breakdown; that she is hallucinating, and to prevent her from hurting herself, Cyborg induced her to a coma."

"When will you bring her back?" Robin crossed his arms.

"I am not sure; everything depends on how willing she is to give me information."

Before the leader of the Titans could fully comprehend the information, L turned the camera off. Sighing, he left the room, only stopping by to turn off the lights; the computer's battery would eventually run out anyway.

* * *

"What are those markings?" The half-demon demanded in full civilian clothes, the fabric of her leotard resting on her lap.

"Oh" The detective put his tea-cup aside, entranced by the question "So, you noted?"

She rolled her eyes sarcastically "I'd have to be blind to don't notice it. It was in front of my nose, really" Indigo eyes suspicious "What are your intentions, L?"

He shrugged, the bones of his shoulders delineating the white shirt he wore "I simply need you to enlighten me. A few names will suffice"

"Whose names?" The empath asked, finally willing to help. "But" She interrupted him mid-sentence "You must tell me where did you took those spellbound prints from"

The black mane nodded. "I need the identities of your two most dangerous criminals, them being Slade, also known of the Justice League as Deathstroke and Red-X" He raised a finger to his lips to kindly silence Raven when she tried to speak "I know there also is, The Brotherhood of Evil, Trigon and a few others but I am most suspicious of those two I stated before"

The young woman breathed silently, a small reaction from hearing her father's name, before answering:

"Deathstroke, or Slade as we call him, his name is Wilson. Slade Wilson" She made a four seconds pause "Red-X, he once was Robin but–"

"Yes?"

"It's a long story really but, it was necessary. When you have the chance, ask him, he'll tell you everything"

Again, L nodded, dark eyes telling her to continue. "Scott Menville" Raven blurted the name quickly after his encouragement, giving the detective half a second to fully comprehend the information before she spoke again. "He is more the thief type, a coward, rather than an enemy; he has no FBI record because he yet didn't cause any threat to America as Slade did"

The empath never knew why she was giving him that much of information – although L had worked along with the Titans before – she could never say he was trustful but she thought… Maybe, it was because of Beast Boy (she never wanted revenge for his death, but justice. It was only fair, she dedicated most of her life to this cause); for other families, after all she knew how much the previous Kira had affected the world and its living humans this just couldn't happen again; a third reason (she supposed) was the fact the rest of the team had agreed on accepting L's weird ways of work. Including locking Raven without her own consent, tying her up, blocking her view with a stupid piece of cloth, transporting and keeping the empath captive.  
She failed to understand – nor did she want to – the logic behind his actions. It was just too surreal for the half-demon, that being stated by someone who was the "legacy" of a dimensional demon, someone who was sent to the Underworld for having fulfilled her Prophecy and, oh, did she forgot to mention she dated a green skinned guy before he was killed by a Death Note?

Really, surreal, was a colossal understatement.

"I see" His head tilted a little back, in thought, Raven swore she saw a small pout on his lips, but it vanished when he spoke "Give me an amount of two days and I'll find the murderer" He said confidently.

"Only two days?" She quoted sarcastically "Aren't you bragging?"

He only smiled – slightly – his thin lips curving upwards, before stretching to its full height and leaving the room.  
For the next two days; Raven was left alone.

* * *

The day started unusually late, she was used to wake up early (as light sleeper she was), accompanied by a book of poems that walked beside her to the kitchen, a tea mug to start the morning and the sunlight passing through the enormous windows of the 'T' shaped tower. Today, though, the half demon woke up past noon – feeling oddly rested – dodging her tranquil routine for once in a lifetime, deciding to only leave her room to socialize a bit with her family; or the reminiscent family she had.

Somehow, the return of L re-opened a black hole on each of the titans mind, sucking their strength with every intake of breath; Garfield's death was never properly mentioned before, they had accepted that their teammate was gone (their friend, their cheerful side, their will to watch horror movies), however the Titans never spoke as Beast Boy being just another dead corpse, the team never allowed themselves to think of him as permanently out of their lives.  
It was – is – so complicated to express into words, or thoughts, or anything that holds the tiniest logic. That also was another reason why the empath kept a deadly grip on her emotions since the detective arrived, allowing her other halves speak for themselves was a risk she couldn't dare to take; specially after Happy's comment – mentioning L.

"He's cute"

The pink cloaked emotion always had bad timings but, stating this on her mind while they were working on a case? That sent Raven back to Nevermore (the name was a courtesy of both Cyborg and Garfield) and straight to Happy's domain, to lecture her. The empath knew it was useless, the emotion couldn't feel anything other than happiness, but she was so frustrated that she needed to yell at someone, fortunately or not, this someone was Happy.  
The emotion noticed the stress Raven was being put into, so she didn't blamed her, but she still wished Raven would fear less her demonic powers; Love was in need of fresh air anyway…

"He's cute" Raven snorted, repeating herself.

The common room doors opened itself as the empath passed by, her thoughts jamming a bit of her sight, so she was surprised to listen words from a very known voice.

"Glad you're awake".

The quiet raspy words belonged to a mouth that exhaled a sweet aroma from all candies he was used to eat. It was certainly the _last voice_ she wanted to hear and just the quite one she was starting to get used to.  
However, the half demon breathed in, grasped her emotions together, and silenced them with assassin strength.

"Nice place" He stood in the middle of the common room, long arms creating a mind on their on opened wide as if to introduce Raven her own home, black eyes with a risk of green smiled dangerously as well as his lips. It was the first time the empath saw L completely straight.

"You know" His spiked hazardous tornado hair concerned Raven a bit. Had those dark tresses _ever_ met a hairbrush? "Oh, never mind"

"Pardon me?" Her brow narrowed in confusion.

Hanger-like shoulders made an indifferent motion. "I was going to comment the weather, but I thought it was unnecessary" L's long fingers pointed to the large windows of the common room.

Raven was about to give an acid comment, but the echo of the detective's footsteps muffled her voice. Her eyes weren't on his direction before, she was rather scanning the sink wondering of she should wash the dishes or not, when a weird realization dawned upon the half demon.

His warmth.

"Kira was not _his_ murderer" L's voice reverberated trough her skull.

He looked down at her, sweet scented and dead serious. She looked up to him, a lone eyebrow questioning him. And a rather loud heartbeat.

"Neither was I, if that's what your momentarily insane mind is suggesting" The detective joked, a side grin (one that – both Happy and Timid noted – surprisingly suited him) twitching a corner of his pale mouth.

After a sigh that brushed a bit of his mane away from his eyes, Raven asked:

"Who?"

L stepped once behind, giving the empath a little more space than he was previously allowing her. "I'll fix you some tea. You had better sit down" He motioned the couch, and left to the kitchen.

Later, Raven would blame Happy and her stupid timing.

Now, the jolt of fresh cold air that welcomed her was bothering.

The detective walked around the Tower like he was the owner and a bit after he delivered the half demon her tea (which she never drank), L's arm found their way to the empath's shoulder. She shot him daggers with her glare.

"This was the last time you interacted with a living Beast Boy" His eyes pointed them both. "If I am not wrong, you had a book on your possession, but this is unimportant"

He turned the television on, flipping channels. After a few minutes passed by and he had yet to give her an explanation, Raven demanded.

L simply shrugged.

"I am afraid I do not know what you are talking about"

* * *

_~V.D~_


End file.
